Get some fun into your every day routine with these sparky ideas to perk up the most mundane activities...

Bathtime fun: If bathtime ever begins to get tiresome, why not play hair dressers and use the suds from the baby shampoo to make fun hairstyles with your baby's hair! Show what they look like with a plastic mirror and see their reaction to looking like an alien!

Changing roles: why not encourage your little one to look after you for a while. Get them to cuddle you, wrap you in a blanket on a comfy chair, stroke your hand or forehead etc. Or, see if they will tuck you into bed for a pretend nap and sing you a bedtime song. They will love it!

Picture book: Look through old pictures and choose some to make a big family book full of family photos.  You could add a collage and stick the pictures onto card and mount them with glue. Frame the collage and see how much fun you have naming all the relations and seeing how they are related to each other! You could set it out like a family tree!

Dinner time: Pretend you are in a restaurant and set out the table with a table cloth or a bunch of flowers.  Pretend to take orders and bring in the food like a waitress.  Don't forget the bill at the end!

Enjoy!

In the old days, babies were bathed once a week in an old tin bath in front of the fire - if  there were older brothers and sisters they may get the bath after everyone else had washed and so it was not a fun (or safe!) activity.  Nowadays there are all sorts of gadgets and gizmos to entertain baby and keep them safe and bath time is often used as part of the bed time routine to lull baby into a restful sleep.

So, what do you need?  Surely just a bath and a wash cloth!  Not at all!  There are some fabulous, new accessories that are worth a look at.

• Agua Pod: a slip mat with a back support and handle so baby can sit unaided on a non slip surface and slash around. Suitable for 6 moths plus, it costs around £25.
• Foam bath support: a huge spongy support for babies to lie back and enjoy a splashy time without needing full parental support.  Suitable from birth to six months, priced around £10.
• Thermometer: To test the heat of the water, ideally the water should be 36-38 degrees centigrade; costs  £3 - £15 for a digital version.
• Baby bather: a deckchair for baby to lie back in and feel supported while in the bath, suitable from birth.  Costs around £10 for a toweling version, £20 for a more substantial fabric version.
• Ergonomic baby bather: all plastic, ergonomically shaped bather.  Suitable from birth, costing around £16.
• Tummy Tub Baby Bath: looking like a large bucket for baby to bath in!  Suitable from birth and costs in the region of £20.
• Dry Eyes Shampoo Shield: an ideal way to keep shampoo from children's eyes.  Hold the shield during washing and it helps keep it from going in their eyes.  Suitable from age 2, this will cost about £5.

It seems that just as many children begin to find themselves really mucky by the end of the day: food, paint, sand, mud all over them, that they develop a fear of the bath!  Between the age of 1 and 2 it is common to hear of toddlers who cry, scream and refuse to get into their lovely, warm, foaming water despite lots of encouragement.   There are various things that might scare children about bathing - even if they cannot necessarily articulate the problem, bear the following in mind.

• They may be fearful of the soap in their eyes when they wash with soap or wash their hair.
• They may not like the sound of the water filling the bath - it may be loud for them.
• They may not like the gurgling water going down the drain at the end of the bath.
• They may be scared of going under water or slipping.
• They may not like the coldness as they undress and when they get out all wet.

Try to reduce the fears by:-

• Not using slippy soap and ensuring you wash faces without soap on the cloth, just water.
• Filling the bath before they come in and emptying it after they have gone.
• Using baby shampoo and concentrate on the back of the head rather than the scalp so to avoid dripping.
• Wrapping them up nice and warmly in a dry towel as soon as they come out.

If they really refuse, don't force them.  Try a stand up wash, then progress to a stand-up wash in the bath.  Then with a little water and gradually build up the water over a couple of weeks, if that's what it takes.

Make bath time fun with a few toys to play with and calm lighting.  Even try getting in yourself!  That might be fun!

Yeugh - nits and lice are unpleasant, but don't panic if your children develop an infestation!  Lice spread easily between children playing in groups so unfortunately, infestations aren't uncommon.  Nits are the eggs that hatch into lice.  The first you may hear is by note from your nursery that lice are going round, or of course you may notice your children scratching their heads as they sooth bites from lice.  Lice don't fly or jump but they crawl quickly making them difficult to spot.  Use a fine comb to see if your child is suffering from nits - a fine comb will help to pull them out and help you to confirm an infestation.

You can buy lice shampoos to treat the critters at any pharmacy.  Lice lay eggs which hatch in 7 - 10 days, and then in a further 7 - 10 days, the young lice grow into adults and will start laying their own eggs.  To remove them with shampoo, you will need to apply once at the first sign of infestation, and then once more around 7 days later when any existing eggs have hatched - shampoo doesn't treat nits (the eggs), only the lice.  Further applications may be required either because the treatment didn't work, or your child may become reinfected from their nursery groups.

You should also wash any items that your child's head has had contact with since the infestation.  Wash their bedding to remove lice from that, and wash anything else that their head may have come into contact with in the run up to the infestation.

The whole idea of nits and lice is pretty unpleasant, but it's a fact of growing up, so be aware that your child may get infected, keep a lookout for early signs, and don't panic if your child gets infected.  Millions of other children are in the same situation and there are no long term effects.